Imagining a New Mediterranean World
Rising tensions in Europe over what has crystallized as “the Muslim Question” has made it all too easy to forget that there was a time when Islam was fully a part of European life. The recent wave of pro-democracy protests sweeping the Middle East, one hopes, will make forgetting that history – often a willful strategy by political leaders – a bit harder.
NEW YORK – Mediterranean countries are experiencing turbulence unseen since the era of decolonization and independence. Popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have swept away entrenched autocracies. Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi is holding on by the skin of his teeth, and political leaders in Algeria and Morocco are scrambling to maintain authority.